constant connection dropping on westell 7500 modem

I've had the 1mb/s service for the last year and never had a single problem with connectivity, it was just slow. Two weeks ago, we upgraded to the 7 mb/s service, and ever since then, the internet connection drops on the modem. The 'Internet' light just goes off, while all the other lights stay on. Sometimes it is connected for 2 minutes, sometimes its 2 hours. The only way to get a connection again is to turn the modem off and on again. The tech support people on the phone have been no help, and they have scheduled twice to send people to our house to check it out, but no one showed up either time. It is very frustrating. Has anyone else had any experience with this issue?

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mtaylor2k2

This issue has finally been resolved. After two scheduled service technicians failed to show up, one randomly came to my house on a day when they werent scheduled to. Anyway, the problem ended up not being the router. Where the lines come to my house, the box outside, a wire was rubbing on a metal edge. Over time the metal wore away the insulation on the wire, so copper on metal contact was making a lot of noise in the line. With the 1 mb service, apparently that doesn't matter too much, but at 7 mb/s, it is near the limit of the line, and that much noise was really messing up the connection. dropping speed, losing connection etc. I think anytime the wind blew the lines a certain way, and that contact was made, it would drop signal. Anyway, he found the problem rather quickly and fixed it. The internet has been up for about 24 hours now at full speed the whole time.

I had checked the signal/noise ratio on the router several times, but only when the connection was UP, so everything looked normal. I never checked when it was down. Anyway, maybe this will be helpful to someone who is having a similar problem.

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kew2

I know how frustrating the tech support folks can be. You should be aware that the first tech person that takes your call runs through a script they have. When they come to a dead end they move you up to a tech that knows just a little bit more. I haven't had to deal with support in some time and I hear they now can help you remotely (they take over your machine). When I was having troubles some time ago I had to be walked through step by step. My problems took weeks to resolve which meant repeated calls to support. The frustrating part was that each time I called I had to start from the very beginning of the toubleshooting script and go over solutions it was already concluded were not going to solve my problem. It took weeks for them to finally recognize that the problem wasn't at my end but at their end. I knew when I first called that it wasn't at my end. I normally run a Linux box but had to get on one of my windows machines for them to help me ( I don't know if that's still the case) and fairly familiar communication configurations. Sorry for the length of this post. Bare with me, I'm getting to my point. My problem when dealing with their customer support was that I was too patient and lacked assertiveness skills. What I later learned is that when you make the second call to customer support if they attempt to start you at the bottom of the trouble shooting script politely point out that you've already been through those failed steps and could you please speak to a supervisor. That way you get to a real tech person sooner. Keep in mind that if you're not tech savvy person you are going to need to learn patience. Put yourself in the shoes of the lowly C.S. person imagine how frustrated they must get at times with customers that aren't able to assist in the process. There is no need to be rude or obnoxious but at the same time you need not put up with incompetence. Remember there is a big difference between the front line customer service people and the knowledgeable tech support folk. Don't wait ask to be moved up the latter when you sense you are starting to go in circles. Some problems are more difficult than others to solve so use some judgment. Believe it or not they are there to help. Besides, you're paying them.

mtaylor2k2

ptlinva

I'm having the exact same issue since they installed my DSL a year ago. I finally gave up and started living with rebooting my modem every day but I've gotten tired of doing that and decided that I would start calling again.

However, Verizon is starting to lose thier premier image with me as support has really slacked in the last 3-4 weeks. I took off a day of work to be there when they came out to fix my line... a no-call/no-show. I spoke to 2 supervisors and 2 repair managers from whom I got promises to have someone out here and that they would call back.

Guess what? Neither has happened. It's getting really bad.

It's now taken over a month to get a phone line installed. That's crazy and I'm getting ready to cancel our Verizon service altogether.

Overall, I hope that Verizon will come out and finally fix the quality of my lines. If they do, I'll be happy and glad that I went through the 15+ phone calls, missed day and 1/2 of work, and stress from the family because the Internet is down AGAIN.

Come on Verizon. I need HELP.

Paul L.